by Trey Barrineau, USA TODAY

by Trey Barrineau, USA TODAY

The British comedian was thrown out of Tuesday's after-party for the GQ Men of the Year Awards after making comments linking Hugo Boss, the event's sponsor, to the Nazis during World War II, the Mail Online reports.

"If anyone knows a bit about history and fashion, you know it was Hugo Boss who made uniforms for the Nazis. ... But they looked (expletive) fantastic, let's face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality," the Mail Online quotes Brand as saying onstage.

Afterward, Brand was kicked out of the party by GQ's editor, Dylan Jones. Brand described his version of what happened in a tweet:

In 2011, the German fashion giant apologized for its mistreatment of forced laborers in its factory during World War II. (The company manufactured -- but never designed -- uniforms for the Nazi war machine.) Founder Hugo F. Boss, who died in 1948, claimed he only co-operated with Adolf Hitler's regime to save his firm, and a 2011 historical study argues that Boss tried to improve conditions for his wartime workers whenever he could.

The Mail Online's Guy Walters writes: "The true story of Hugo Boss, his firm and its relationship with the Nazis, is rather less straightforward than Russell Brand would have it."

The true story of Brand's relationship with the fashion house could be characterized in much the same manner: The Sun points out that the funnyman wore a Hugo Boss jacket to a high-profile Oscars party just six months ago.